Photography from south-east Asia by Jon Sanwell

Nostalgia and sloth

January 24, 2016

Even though my autumn trip to Myanmar wasn’t that long ago, I’m already feeling a little nostalgic about it, perhaps because the weather here in Hanoi has turned cold and wet, perhaps because I’ve barely picked up my camera since I got back. It’s a familiar pattern for me: I go away on a trip, take loads of pictures, then come home and spend so much time sorting and editing that I neglect to take any new pictures, thus losing all the momentum that I built up while I was away. I’m a simple man, and my tiny brain can only cope with one project at a time, it would seem. I know that some photographers always have a camera with them, and are constantly shooting, but it’s never really been that way for me. I tend to have periods of activity, followed by periods of, for want of a better word, sloth. This used to bother me a lot more than it does now. I may not be taking any new photographs at the moment, but I still have more from the Myanmar trip to go through, and I know that, sooner or later, the urge to do something new will take hold again.

In the meantime, here are a few more from Shan state in northern Myanmar, taken in Pyin Oo Lwin and Hsipaw in November last year.

On the whole, getting around is pretty easy. Most hotels and guesthouses can help with booking transport, and people in Myanmar tend to be really friendly and helpful. Bus journeys are sometimes longer than advertised, but are generally reasonably comfortable (more so than in Laos, for instance, where the buses are usually crammed full of people).

Yeah well a human being can only do so much, it’s not the quantity but the quality that matters and you have the quality in spades. Keep doing whatever you’re doing. Shoot, edit – post and print…Repeat 😐 thanks for posting!